The property of fault zone and fault activity of Shionohira Fault, Fukushima, Japan

Abstract:

The April 11, 2011 Fukushima-ken Hamadori Earthquake (hereafter the 4.11 earthquake) formed co-seismic surface ruptures trending in the NNW-SSE direction in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, which were newly named as the Shionohira Fault by Ishiyama et al. (2011). This earthquake was characterized by a westward dipping normal slip faulting, with a maximum displacement of about 2 m (e.g., Kurosawa et al., 2012). To the south of the area, the same trending lineaments were recognized to exist even though no surface ruptures occurred by the earthquake. In an attempt to elucidate the differences of active and non-active segments of the fault, this report discusses the results of observation of fault outcrops along the Shionohira Fault as well as the Coulomb stress calculations.

Only a few outcrops have basement rocks of both the hanging-wall and foot-wall of the fault plane. Three of these outcrops (Kyodo-gawa, Shionohira and Betto) were selected for investigation. In addition, a fault outcrop (Nameishi-minami) located about 300 m south of the southern tip of the surface ruptures was investigated. The authors carried out observations of outcrops, polished slabs and thin sections, and performed X-ray diffraction (XRD) to fault materials. 

As a result, the fault zones originating from schists were investigated at Kyodo-gawa and Betto. A thick fault gouge was cut by a fault plane of the 4.11 earthquake in each outcrop. The fault materials originating from schists were fault bounded with (possibly Neogene) weakly deformed sandstone at Shionohira. A thin fault gouge was found along the fault plane of 4.11 earthquake. A small-scale fault zone with thin fault gouge was observed in Nameishi-minami. According to XRD analysis, smectite was detected in the gouges from Kyodo-gawa, Shionohira and Betto, while not in the gouge from Nameishi-minami.